Halloween Monster Dash

If you were to have read my blog a mere 3 weeks ago, you would have seen a post written by my sister and myself. About how kindly I volunteered to run her first race with her, and how she was going to murk me as a result.

...Fast forward....My how times change, right?

A mere 4 days after that? Michelle and her asked me to run a 1/2 marathon with them. Or in the same one, but each of us running our own pace. You know me and races, (they are like peanut butter, can't resist, besides the swag was super cool) so I agreed. I'll admit to being a tad weary because it was on October 30th. We live in Minnesota. Things can get cold around here fast. However? The day was just about perfect for running.

It was a bigger race than I thought, with over 6,000 runners in the half marathon and 10 mile race, and several thousand more in the 5k.

The race itself was great. I ran with the 2 hr pace group for the first 3-4 miles, but decided to go ahead at that point. I jumped ahead and continued on, trying to catch up to the man wearing the bath robe. Which, by the way, was the best part of this race. You could run with Superwoman, Sheiks, Pirates, Zombies, Witches, Cats, Giraffes and pretty much anything else you can think of. (not one ax was seen though) It made it easy to say, "Okay, just pass the giraffe and fairy on the right and you are good."

The wind was swift coming around the last lake, but when you finally after an eternity rounded the corner, it pushed you to the end. My final time was 1:57:20, which is 37 seconds off my 1/2 personal best! Yay! I figure I'll Boston Qualify by the time I'm 89. Or so.

The fun sorta ended there. We were on the edge of a lake, the wind was blowing, we were sweaty and it was cold. I had to wait a bit for Patty and Michelle to finish, so I sat there with my teeth chattering for 45 minutes. I literally found 2 mismatched discarded gloves on the ground and put them on to help keep me warm. At 12, I went to the shuttle line to meet up with Patty and Michelle. We were planning on hopping on the shuttle, heading back to the start, driving home, getting washed up and heading back down to St. Paul for a Halloween Party at the Children's Museum- by 5-5:30 p.m. No problem, right? It was noon. I live 50 or so minutes from the cities, so we could do it.

Except. A failure in planning. There were the 6,000 runners you see, and each of us had been told not to drive to the finish, but take the shuttles they were offering.

An actual shuttle line shot. I took this about an hour into our wait. One shoot looking up at the line, and another at the waiting behind us.

Here's some math:

6 shuttles, probably 3,000-4,000 people taking the shuttles, 25+ minute round trip ride, buses that fit around 75 people.

We ended up waiting over 2 hours for a bus. The lines were packed. People were freezing, after running that long and then sitting in a cold wind. Hundreds of people were calling cabs, and fights were almost breaking out over who got the cabs when they came. It was a really, really unpleasant way to end a race. I had a splitting headache, but no water or advil, so I couldn't do anything about it. We were shivering and our teeth would not stop chattering. We ended up back at the start line about 2:30 p.m., and rushing back home. We picked up the boys (all 3 generously watched by our mother. They were total angels I am sure) and took off.

We had less than an hour to shower, get ready, pack up and head to St. Paul for the Halloween Party- nice rush! It was worth it though, because the boys had an amazing time.

They ran, played, explored, bounced, yelled, refused to sit for pictures...It was the perfect party for little men!

Patty and I? Tried not to pass out from exhaustion.